Flexible Dieting: The Ultimate Guide To IIFYM . After that, we will cover what IIFYM is, what some shortcomings of it are & how to correct them, what its pros are, and finally how to setup your IIFYM diet plan. The Diverse Nature of Food. I’m generally disinterested in fixating arbitrary “percentages of importance” on the particular components of one’s fitness regimen–such as, “Your results are determined 9. For now let’s just settle for nutrition being a major portion of the pie. But now that we have this large piece of pie on our plate we are faced with another conundrum—how much of this piece is “healthy/clean” and how much is “unhealthy/dirty?” This metaphor is already way out in left field, but I’m committed to it and don’t feel like starting over so bear with me. Let’s hypothetically say we have ourselves a big ol’ piece of pecan pie. Now you might be thinking, “Hey, pecans contain bounties of . What about the gooey goodness that holds the pie together? All that butter and brown sugar that melts in your mouth each bite you take. How about the graham cracker crust that lays the foundation for most any pecan pie? Are those portions of the pie inherently “dirty” and unhealthy for you? The Relevance of the Term “Healthy”Frankly, there is no short yes- or- no answer for the aforementioned questions because the term “healthy” is relevant to your own specific nutritional needs. People seem to haphazardly throw the word healthy around in certain pre- defined circumstances, but the reality is that what is healthy for one individual may or may not be healthy for another. In the Darwinian/biological sense, for something to be healthy, it serves to enhance the survivability/fitness of that organism. Not to mention that the absurd amounts of performance- enhancing drugs many competitors use just compound the issue; the sad truth is that bodybuilding has increasingly become a sport/lifestyle that unbeknownst to the general public supports the ideology of sacrificing health to look a certain way. On the flipside, a more workable diet will likely have a much higher adherence rate. Something that seems to fly right over the head of so- called “fitness gurus” when they devise outlandish, extreme diets is that no matter how great something sounds on paper, it won’t work if it’s not practical and has some leeway; we’re humans, not machines. As alluded to earlier, bodybuilding and physique sports promote extreme lifestyles, and in fact that’s what has created the whole dichotomy of “clean” and “dirty” foods. People, especially bodybuilders, look at certain foods and think “Rice, chicken and broccoli are all clean foods, so I will just stick rigidly to those and eliminate everything else.”What the Heck Makes a Food “Clean” or “Dirty?”Let’s take a step back and think about this logically? What about the micronutrient content? Maybe it’s “clean” because of the way it is was raised, free to roam the farm prior to being meeting its doom with the butcher? Like the preceding question about “clean” food, how do we categorize/define a food that is “dirty” or “junk?” I’m sure many readers immediately think of foods like pizza, burgers, and ice cream when they hear those terms. Is it because those foods tend to be processed, high in fat and/or sugar, and lacking micronutrient content? Many questions have been brought up here, but fear not as answers are on the way. At this point, you should know that nutrition has a significant impact on your results. Abs are built in the kitchen, you are what you eat, and all the rest. 3 Easy Steps To Carb Cycling – Plus Meal Plan Drop Fat, Build Muscle, Boost Metabolism. Benefits of Meal Planning. Meal plans are an easy way to reach your health and lifestyle goals. Enter “If It Fits Your Macros” (IIFYM)In recent years, IIFYM has become an increasingly popular dieting ideology in bodybuilding subculture. What’s never really made sense to me about this whole movement is that IIFYM isn’t really anything new or profound. In fact, IIFYM is the way pretty much everybody who has ever tracked their food intake has always eaten, with the exception that no foods are seen as off limits. Of course, in the bodybuilding and fitness world, the idea of no foods being off limits has sent many “clean” eaters into a frenzy, scolding IIFYM as being an inferior and illogical way of dieting. This might be an eye- opener for some readers, especially if you have succumbed to the good ol’ chicken, rice and broccoli diet for the last decade, but the reality is that very few foods/ingredients are unanimously unhealthy and completely detrimental to your physique. Barring specific food allergies (which lately everyone seems to have an undiagnosed case of Celiac disease) or an irrational fear of certain food additives (like monosodium glutamate), there is little basis to label a food as being universally “dirty” or unhealthy. Toxicity is in the Dose. Now don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of research that goes into the potential deleterious effects of things like artificial ingredients and other food additives, but frankly if you’re not consuming these things day- in and day- out in gross quantities there is little to be afraid of. Some good examples that come to mind are partially hydrogenated oils and high- fructose corn syrup; both of these ingredients have received a terrible reputation, especially with their increasing use in our food supply and the concomitant rise in obesity rates. Yes, trans- fatty that are produced from partial hydrogenation of oils have been shown to promote cardiac complications even in rather small quantities, but if you’re taking in say less than 1g of trans fat per day (which is not that hard to do unless you plan on inhaling Krispy Kreme doughnuts by the dozen) then the health ramifications will be negligible. And as far as high- fructose corn syrup goes, it’s yet another case of limiting your intake, but frankly if you’re eating an otherwise healthy diet and controlling calorie intake, a bit of high- fructose corn syrup won’t make or break your physique or health. Sadly, preaching moderation to a herd of extremist bodybuilders and fitness connoisseurs probably won’t bode well for the reception of this article, but this is actually a nice segue into the next section that looks at the shortcomings of the IIFYM mantra and how to correct them. Logical Dieting 1. Eluding Deficiency and Excess. During the introduction of this article we discussed what it is that makes a diet/food healthy and how there is no one- size- fits- all algorithm out there that will spit out your precise nutritional needs. Naturally, this means you need to take time to learn your body’s specific metabolic needs, which will likely come through trial and error. Diet programs The 4-week fat-burning meal plan Get a full week of high protein, high fiber, and low carb meals for building muscle and burning fat fast. A macros diet is a style of eating where people track their carbohydrates, fat and protein—and aim to eat within a certain range each day. In this meal plan, we put. All of our customized macro diet programs are created by the talented and experienced Macro Diet Coaches over at IIFYM.com. Click here to get started: IIFYM Macro Diet. The main thing to keep in mind however is that any healthy diet that keeps you performing at an optimal level should be eluding the extremes of taking in too much of a particular nutrient and/or being deficient in another nutrient, as well as meeting your daily calorie quota. Whatever foods you choose to eat to satisfy this is simply a means to an end, and this is the gist of IIFYM. However, one of the major pitfalls of IIFYM seems to be that some people use it as an excuse to disregard things like micronutrients, dietary fiber, the quality of protein sources, essential fatty acid intake and sugar consumption. For example, a diet that contains an abundance of soy protein probably wouldn’t be nearly as effective for muscle building and fat loss purposes as one that contains higher quality, leucine- rich protein sources such as whey and eggs. What IIFYM Really Is. For whatever reason, people read about IIFYM and think it’s a diet that gives them the freedom a bunch of Pop- Tarts and cookies to fill in the majority of their carb and fat needs. Unless you’re a genetic anomaly, excessive amounts of simple sugars, negligible amount of dietary fiber and a bunch of trans- fats probably won’t fit your macronutrient needs, especially if you’re trying to stay in good shape and be healthy. Furthermore, it’s not nearly as catchy but IIFYM should be renamed “IIFYM/. I refuse to refer to these as “clean” foods though because that term is nonsensical; these are more properly foods that should be noted as “nutrient- dense” (this is bound to evoke semantic arguments but that’s a chance I’m willing to take). Finding the Balance. Does this mean your diet has to be entirely comprised of the aforementioned nutrient- dense foods? Certainly not, and this is actually the upside of IIFYM in that it promotes balance and elasticity in one’s diet. Bodybuilding for Men & Women. Whether you are a man or a woman, find out what it REALLY takes to build muscle quickly and easily.Someone who wishes to incorporate some foods that are more nutrient- devoid/empty calorie can do that assuming they still reach their overall needs at the end of the day (and assuming they are balancing their macronutrient proportions at each feeding). It may take some time to wrap your head around this concept, but you’re only fooling yourself if you truly believe that a slice of pizza or grabbing some ice cream with your significant other is going to sabotage all your effort in the gym. In fact, the irony is that many people who adhere rigidly to the idea of “clean” eating will simply give in after a short period of time and go on absolute binge- a- thons (colloquially called “cheat” days). Make no mistake, those binge episodes can and will wreak havoc on your body composition quickly. A Typical “Clean” Diet Vs. IIFYM Meal Plan. Pick up any mainstream bodybuilding magazine and you’ll come across the same humdrum rubble that now defines pretty much every meathead’s diet. Let’s take a look at an example of such a “clean” diet: Typical “Clean” Diet. Meal 1: 6 egg whites, 8. Meal 2: (Pre- Workout) 1 scoop whey protein mixed with 4. Flaxseed oil. Meal 3: (Post workout) 2 scoops whey protein mixed with 5. In fact, this type of dieting often leads to the loss of emotional pleasure that should normally come from eating. It’s sad that most people would see this diet and commend the individual on how “healthy” they eat when the reality is this diet is far from that. Let’s take a look at an example of an IIFYM meal plan that breaks down to the exact same macros as the above diet: Example IIFYM Meal Plan. Meal 1: 2 cup (~4. I’d surmise that 9. IIFYM plan over the aforementioned usual meathead diet.
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